Re: [Groff] Using \U for unicode representation

[Werner LEMBERG]

> > \U'03a4' will be the Unicode input character U+03A4 (in a special
> > Unicode-input mode which does not yet exist).
> 
> Why do you use a lower case letter for the hex value 'a'?  The
> Unicode standard exclusively uses caps.  In a few years, there might
> be automatisms for Unicode handling; these will of course match the
> standard exactly.

No specific reason.  IMHO, both uppercase and lowercase should be
accepted.

> > Of course, it may be a nice idea to write an add-on macro package
> > which maps non-existing glyphs to the text string `U+XXXX', or to
> > produce a small square or rectangle which could e.g. look like
>  
> >   0 3
> >   A 4
> 
> If you look long enough at this picture you'll detect that the
> characters are not on a quadrangle, but on a circle - and now the
> circle starts turning, turning, ... - stop it!  Well, unfortunately,
> computer stream handling is only linear, whereas nice squared
> circles have 2 dimensions.  So to get in terms with the computer
> psychology the macros could calculate the decimal value of the
> character code and print that many U+2623 (BIOHAZARD SIGN)
> characters in a single row.

The small rectangle was of course meant for non-tty devices.


    Werner